A couple months ago, a new Marine Corps detachment opened on NAVSTA Newport. It is named in remembrance of the Marine Corps barracks and the Rhode Islander’s who lost their life that day. Their names are enshrined on a plaque, which is affixed to a mock piece of the barracks rubble right out front of the QD.

Jim Valle

The bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebannon was America’s and President Reagan’s introduction to a new type of warfare. When the Libyans bombed the nightclub in Germany, Tripoli was treated to a solid thrashing and when the New Jewel movement and the Cubans attempted their coup in Grenada we “went in hot” and put a stop to that business in no uncertain terms. In Beruit the carnage was accomplished by a suicide truck bomber representing some shadowy terrorist group. Aside from a desultry shelling of the Shouf Mountains nothing meaningful could be done to avenge the lost Marines or bring anybody to justice. Twenty-seven years later we’re still looking for the right answer to this problem